Jennifer Hudson readies new album, two films

San Francisco Chronicle - CA, USA - Jennifer Hudson is cutting it close to the wire. The 2004 "American Idol" contestant has been working on her first album for a year and a half, since a week after she won a best supporting actress Oscar for her motion-picture debut as Effie White in "Dreamgirls." She has completed 40 songs with such in-demand R&B producers as Ne-Yo, Stargate, Tank, Timbaland, T-Pain and the Underdogs. Yet, as she arrives in Los Angeles on a recent Friday afternoon, there's less than six weeks to go before the disc's scheduled Sept. 30 release, and she has two more vocal tracks to do over a weekend that also includes rehearsals with a band led by "American Idol" musical director Rickey Minor for her forthcoming promotional tour.

Arista Records isn't taking any chances with what may well be the company's hottest signing since Whitney Houston. Once Hudson has completed recording, executive producers Clive Davis and Larry Jackson will shuffle through all the songs and decide which ones make the final cut.